CVE-2026-31446

NameCVE-2026-31446
DescriptionIn the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ext4: fix use-after-free in update_super_work when racing with umount Commit b98535d09179 ("ext4: fix bug_on in start_this_handle during umount filesystem") moved ext4_unregister_sysfs() before flushing s_sb_upd_work to prevent new error work from being queued via /proc/fs/ext4/xx/mb_groups reads during unmount. However, this introduced a use-after-free because update_super_work calls ext4_notify_error_sysfs() -> sysfs_notify() which accesses the kobject's kernfs_node after it has been freed by kobject_del() in ext4_unregister_sysfs(): update_super_work ext4_put_super ----------------- -------------- ext4_unregister_sysfs(sb) kobject_del(&sbi->s_kobj) __kobject_del() sysfs_remove_dir() kobj->sd = NULL sysfs_put(sd) kernfs_put() // RCU free ext4_notify_error_sysfs(sbi) sysfs_notify(&sbi->s_kobj) kn = kobj->sd // stale pointer kernfs_get(kn) // UAF on freed kernfs_node ext4_journal_destroy() flush_work(&sbi->s_sb_upd_work) Instead of reordering the teardown sequence, fix this by making ext4_notify_error_sysfs() detect that sysfs has already been torn down by checking s_kobj.state_in_sysfs, and skipping the sysfs_notify() call in that case. A dedicated mutex (s_error_notify_mutex) serializes ext4_notify_error_sysfs() against kobject_del() in ext4_unregister_sysfs() to prevent TOCTOU races where the kobject could be deleted between the state_in_sysfs check and the sysfs_notify() call.
SourceCVE (at NVD; CERT, ENISA, LWN, oss-sec, fulldisc, Debian ELTS, Red Hat, Ubuntu, Gentoo, SUSE bugzilla/CVE, GitHub advisories/code/issues, web search, more)
ReferencesDLA-4561-1, DSA-6238-1, DSA-6243-1

Vulnerable and fixed packages

The table below lists information on source packages.

Source PackageReleaseVersionStatus
linux (PTS)bullseye5.10.223-1vulnerable
bullseye (security)5.10.251-4vulnerable
bookworm6.1.159-1vulnerable
bookworm (security)6.1.170-3fixed
trixie6.12.73-1vulnerable
trixie (security)6.12.86-1fixed
forky, sid7.0.4-1fixed
linux-6.1 (PTS)bullseye (security)6.1.170-3~deb11u1fixed

The information below is based on the following data on fixed versions.

PackageTypeReleaseFixed VersionUrgencyOriginDebian Bugs
linuxsourcebookworm6.1.170-1DSA-6243-1
linuxsourcetrixie6.12.85-1DSA-6238-1
linuxsource(unstable)6.19.11-1
linux-6.1sourcebullseye6.1.170-1~deb11u1DLA-4561-1

Notes

https://git.kernel.org/linus/d15e4b0a418537aafa56b2cb80d44add83e83697 (7.0-rc6)

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